February 2009

February 26, 2009

I am looking for a little feedback on the length of my blog posts. I am constantly trying to make the content you find here helpful so I have created a quick pole to see what you, my readers, think about the length of my posts. Please take a second and answer the pole question below the video feed on the left side of the page. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

February 24, 2009

This problem came up when Revit 2009 products first released, but was asked to me the other day so I thought I would post on it.

With the 2009 release of the Revit products there is a new rendering engine included with the products.

This new engine uses a Rendering library to render views within Revit and this library is necessary to enable the rendering feature in the products. Without it, you cannot render a view.

If you have seen this error there could be a few reasons.

You choose not to install the Rendering library content.

You are using Revit Structure and choose the default installation. Revit Structure does not install the Rendering library as default with the installation. You need to enable the installation of the Rendering Library in the installation of the product. Check out a solution here for the steps to solve this problem.

You installed the Rendering library but Revit cannot seem to find it. Revit looks for the Rendering library location as it is specified in the Options dialog box as shown below.

Revit is looking for a file called assetlibrary_base.fbx in this location. If this location does not contain the file, the rendering feature will be disabled. Pointing Revit to the location where the assetlibrary_base.fbx file is stored should prevent this error from popping up and will enable Rendering. By default, Revit stores this file in C:\Program Files\Revit Architecture 2009\Data\Rendering\

Finally, your machine might not meet the minimum requirements for using the Rendering Engine. The rendering engine requires that you are using a processor that uses SSE2 technology. Intel Pentium 4 processors or equivalent AMD Athlon proccesors use this technology. If your processor does not use SSE2 technology you will not be able to utilize the rendering engine in Revit 2009 products. How do you know if your processor supports SSE2 instructions? You can use a free application called CPU-Z to ID your processor. Download it from here.

February 19, 2009

Last week I provided some Revit Architecture Training for Z-Corp. Z-Corp is a company that makes 3D Printers and does 3D printing. Most of the training involved how to get your Revit model to print out thick enough so that it could be printed. I am actually working on a sample project (not finished yet) I build in Revit and trying to see how difficult it is to thicken.

A major part of the process is using the STL Exporter for the Revit 2009 platform (any Revit 2009 product) that is available from Autodesk labs to try out. STL is a file format that most 3D printing software can use to print models.

As I suspected, the hardest part in thickening your model is getting component families thick enough to print. This involves having to edit the family and stretch extrusions and geometry so that it would print out correctly or this is a good place for different family types. If you’re doing a lot of 3D printing, you could create types for every size of window and door in your model for your 3D Print. This would make the swapping out process easier, could be time consuming to create all the types, but if you use the same families a lot, maybe you would only have to create them once.

The next hardest part has been around thickening curtain walls. It’s pretty easy to thicken the curtain wall panels, but difficult to thicken the mullions because changing their type requires unpinning all of them. This is a little time consuming. Instead, I just decided to create a new curtain wall type that had the thickness I needed and then replace the entire wall instead of a piece at a time.

As part of my research I looked into a website called CADspan. CADspan has a free tool called the 3D Print Thickness Calculator. This helps you to understand how thick things need to be in your model for you to print correctly at the scale of the print. It has helped me out in getting my model in good shape for printing.

The last thing I wanted to mention about 3D Printing is controlling the visibility of what prints. Revit is very nice for this because of Visibility and Graphics. You can use visibility and graphics to easily turn off any geometry that you do not want to see print. To further limit geometry you can use a Section Box. This limits what is exported via the STL Exporter (and a good way to create interior prints).

I’d be interested to hear about any experiences you have had with 3D printing and the challenges you have had with getting Revit models to print.

February 11, 2009

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 is coming around the corner. Last Friday, Autodesk held a web-cast announcing the new 2010 Revit products and showing some of the enhancements that are coming. I am pretty excited to see the new product.

What’s New

Conceptual Design Enhancements

New and innovative conceptual design features provide easier-to-use tools for freeformmodeling and parametric design, and the ability to support the earliest designanalyses.

New native 64-bit support enhances the software’s ability to handle large projects andimprove performance and stability for memory-intensive tasks such as rendering,printing, model upgrading and file importing and exporting.

I don't know about the rest of you, but these are things that I have been waiting for in Revit for a while. The native 64 bit support for greater abilty to handle memory usage and large projects, a new user interface, and the conceptual design environment all look to be great additions.

Check out these images from Revit Architecture 2010:

The new streamlined user interface optimizes workflow andincreases discoverability of new tools.

New conceptual design features allow you to sketch freely, create 3D models quickly, and take yourdesign from concept to construction documentation all in one environment.

New conceptual design features help you to prepare models for fabrication and construction with builtintools for dividing, patterning and panelizing complex forms.

February 09, 2009

Looking for some tips on how to implement Revit Architecture in your office? Switching from a CAD based application to Building Information Modeling is not a simply switch of applications. It requires planning, training, and when you are ready, piloting a project before you are ready to dive into the world of BIM.

Autodesk's own Ask Amy, Amy Fietkau, teaches valuable tips and provides detailed information on how to implement Revit Architecture in your workplace in a great webcast. I work with Amy fairly often helping to answer email questions that are sent to her and answering questions during her webcasts. She is a great resource for information. Check out the Autodesk Revit Architecture Resource Center as well.

I highly recommend that if you are considering the move to Revit or have made the move but are struggling to get everyone in your office on board, that you check out this webcast. There is a little form to fillout prior to watching, but it is worth it.

February 06, 2009

Jeff Hanson (one of our Subject Matter Experts in Techincal Publications and contributor on my blog) asked me to look into a question that he had heard the other day. Jeff was wondering what is the recommended way to link in a workshared file into another Revit project. Should you link in a Central file or a local file?

His question dealt with getting a Revit file from somone outside your company like a consult that was using worksharing and what you should do to link it into your project. A good example would be any MEP engineers out there linking in architectural Revit files to use in your designs.

I wasn't completely sure about the answer so I talked to developers with the workshring team to find out what they had to say.

The recommendation is to use central files and not local files. The reason for this is that performance might be improved by making sure the link is a central file. This is because Revit often tries to refresh permissions upon opening a file. Editing permissions are required to make changes, so that requires access to the central file. If a local file is linked in, Revit will try to access the central file to get those editing permissions. If the central file is not accessible (e.g. the server does not exist, possibly because the file you got from the consultant thinks that its central file is on the another firm's network), this can cause the Revit to be delayed as it works out that the central file in not available. Revit relies on the OS for this process and this can take on the order of half a minute or more for it to figure out.

Also, if you link in a local file, Revit is going to care about where the central file is located anyway for checking certain error conditions. You're not allowed to link a file into itself. You're also not allowed to link a central into its local, or vice-versa. Nor are you allowed to link two locals of the same central file into each other. Revit checks for these conditions when you link in a file so using central files can make these checks happen faster.

Bottom Line: If you are working with a consultant that is using a Revit workshared file, you should make sure that you are linking in a central file into your file.

To do this you may need to open the consultants workshared project in Revit first and save it as a central file on your network. This way, when you link in the file into your project it will be read as a central file and Revit won't be delayed attempting to check permissions on the file or checking for error conditions.

February 04, 2009

I highly recommend that you click on the hyperlink and read about this new Suite. This new suite of products includes Revit Architecture, AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk 3DS Max Design and Autodesk Navisworks Review.

This a great group of products that gives you unmatched flexibility for understanding and communicating your designs from concept to the final presentation. Check it out.

The idea is to take a original Revit family you have created and create a scene with as many of them as possible. Sounds like it might be fun and you could win some money. Plus you get to show off your family modeling skills.